Shadow of Lassadia
by Rafael-kun
Summary: Original Light Novel set in the world of Slayers! Logan Feniss, down on his luck swordsman meets sorcerer Roy Horzt by chance owing him 100 gold coins, when things start going awry as apparently Mazoku are after Logan. Completed!
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

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It's been like, what, two years since I left home to find something greater than just being a simple waiter my whole life. But perhaps I should start by introducing myself: my name is Logan Feniss and I'm a master swordsman. At least that's what I'd like to say, but considering my experience in the field, I can hardly call myself a swordsman... more like the new guy who likes to wave a sword left and right, not really knowing where it'll land. I am mildly proficient though, but I couldn't consider myself a _master_ swordsman, not by any means. I do have an unusual luck, though.

I'm from Laternia, a small city up in the northwestern edge of the peninsula, part of the kingdom of Dils. What northwestern border, what peninsula you might be wondering? Well, the northwestern border as in THE northwestern border. It IS a peninsula after all. As to what is the peninsula per se, I dare answer that I have to freaking idea. It's supposed to have appeared a thousand years ago after some who-knows-what war that happened between what's-his-name and what's-her-face. Yeah, you can see I don't manage myself perfectly in history, but that's partly because all those history deals don't bother me the very least.

So I've been working as a mercenary (sort of speak) for two years ever since I left Laternia, but work's been scarce lately. For some reason, no one wants to hire mercenaries anymore to do their dirty work and whatnot. I'd like for some of them to take our living expenses into account! It's HARD to make a living -even have a decent meal!- when work is so scarce... but that's where my incredible -not- swordsmanship comes in handy! -by sheer luck more than likely-.

So whenever I'm not hired -which is, might I say, an awful lot lately-, I tend to look up information on whomever might have need for an escort or whatever, and I try to scoop up the gig. Sadly, that hardly ever happens. Either someone just beat me to it or I just can't seem to fit in the role. Perhaps being short, dark haired and looking like a twelve year old (even if I'm already twenty-three god damn it!) doesn't really give me that much of a threatening mercenary look, but I could swear that every single job I've had, I've been magnificently efficient at it! Even if I mostly relied on my uncanny luck…

So that's me, Logan Feniss, a down on his luck mercenary-slash-swordsman-wannabe from Laternia who people tend to think I am way too young for the job and might or might not have the adequate abilities for it. If there was anything I could do about it, this might as well be as good as any time to do it.


	2. And you thoughts bandits were bad

**1: And You Thought Bandits Were Bad...**

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I was walking around the forest surrounding the village I had spent last night looking for the next job -which was elusive as all hell, damn you elusive goddess of work!-. I had spent the last four months holding my breath waiting for a job to appear (I really thought I was known as a good mercenary... but apparently very few people have ever heard of me), but nothing happened and I just had to wander around from city to city, hoping to find at least an escort job or whatever. Why were mercenaries so out of the blue unneeded? It kept eluding me... -Damn you, goddess of elusiveness!- And every single other mercenary I knew was out of a job either. No adventures? No treasures to find? No evil monster to defeat in a god forsaken cave north of the town?

_NO NOTHING GOD DAMN IT! Not even a god damned cat stuck in a god damned tree!_

And that's where it hit me... right in the middle of the forest, as I was reaching a clear. I sat in a rather large trunk tilted to the side, making it for a nice resting spot.

_Why, isn't this convenient for weary travelers? A nice clear, surrounded by sunlight, and even a nice and comfy sitting spot!_

Anyway, it really did hit me. I sat down, and started thinking about my idea. It was sure to work, definitely.

"Hey"

I turned my head to the right and there was even a small spring from where I could get some water! It was almost as if like someone had decided to put up a short-on-gold traveler's resting place in the middle of the forest! Anyway, back on track, I could just... well, CREATE the conditions to get a job. And being the first person that would even know about it, it might just as well work!

"Hey, you there!"

I laid back after drinking some water and decided to keep thinking about my wonderful plan. It was sure to make me rich in only a few months! And then I wouldn't have to worry about getting a job ever again, and not even CONSIDER going back to Laternia!

"Hey, are you listening?"

I heard something. I turned my head right and right next to me were a group of people dressed in ragtag clothing, with a cloth covering their mouths. I waved at them and laid back again, enjoying the scenery.

"Hey, you prick!!" I head again, coming from the group of people. I didn't really pay attention because I...

_Wait. Ragtag clothing... covered faces... holy..._

"Give us everything you've got!", one of them said. Damn, I should've known better. The trunk was way too eerily placed and shaped. It definitely wasn't natural. Perhaps only the spring was natural in this whole clear... it was a trap set up by bandits to rob travelers of all their money. The bandit in front, wearing a bandana, took out a dagger and pointed at me, clearly smiling while his voice came out muffled from the cloth in his face.

I got up calmly and smiled at them, lifting my arms, "Now, now, calm down..."

As soon as I looked at them, smiling confidently, the group of bandits looked disappointed.

"What the hell's a kid gonna carry with him?", one of them said.

"I don't know... perhaps we should just leave him be?", another said.

"Don't be stupid. We haven't seen a single person in WEEKS. This might be the only source of money we'll have in a long time, so we better make good use of it..."

My smile twitched a bit. I know I didn't look precisely... menacing... but they were really starting to push it over the edge.

"Let's leave him be, Gino. It's not worth the trouble", said one of the bandits in the back.

Gino, the leader, turned his gaze backwards and yelled at his comrades, "I'm saying this kid'll get us dinner and we WILL take it!"

I twitched at the mention of that... I had no idea whether to be thankful of Gino or to kick his ass right now... either way, I made up my mind.

"Hey, guys", I said. This time, apparently though, it was I the one who was being ignored. Completely.

"I say we leave him, Gino. The kid might have nothing in him"

"If I say we take him, we take him!" Gino replied.

"Come on, guys...", I said, slowly taking out my sword from its scabbard.

"But what if he doesn't have anything!? I told you we should set up a trap in the main road, where people are CERTAIN to be travelling!"

"Shut up, Edgar!", said Gino, "I say we take the kid and whatever he has with him!"

"Hey, people, listen here..." I said, smiling while still twitching a little from their talking about me as if I wasn't there...

Gino turned his back and looked at me, "Shut up kid, grown ups are trying to talk now".

That did it. I charged towards Gino as soon as he turned his back on me and I slashed him.

As soon as Gino fell to the floor with a loud scream, I smiled at the group of bandits "Don't worry, I hit him with the dull edge..."

The terrorized sight of the bandits made me look down at a pool of blood.

_BLOOD!?_ Damn_! I did it again!_

I somehow always manage to hit people with the sharp edge of the blade, even if it's not a double edged sword! The bandits looked back at me angrily. I had killed their boss, there WAS a reason for them to be angry at me, wasn't there? Heh... I just didn't really like it, so I took a small step backwards, "Well... I'm very, very sorry about this HUGE misunderstanding, guys..." I said while still walking backwards step by step... "I just hope we can put all this behind and..."

If sights could kill, I would've been killed more than ten times, judging from the amount and intensity of the gang's staring... as soon as they started chasing, I turned on my back and started running like hell.

What made me do that? Why couldn't I just walk away as they gave me the chance? I might do well as a mercenary -because of luck more than anything-, but I knew that as a swordsman I was proficient, but against a whole gang? Not a chance. I couldn't even hit someone with the dull edge right, and I end up killing him... And so I dodged a few arrows and stones directed at my way, more than likely from the gang earlier.

_Man, will they ever get tired of following me? It's been like ten minutes now!_

And that's how I hit him. For some reason, a man was standing right in front of my overly complicated path to freedom (and life), and even if he saw me running like a madman from a mile away, he wouldn't move.

"Hey! Old man!! Move!"

"Who are you calling an old man?" said the... well, old man. He had short black hair and was wearing a weird robe only a sorcerer could wear. But come on, weren't all sorcerers supposed to be old men? Anyway, I just kept running.

"MOVE GOD DAMN IT!!!"

I couldn't take the right path from him: at the speed I was running I'd hit a tree. And on the left side, there was a freakin' RIVER of all things that would randomly appear when running for dear life... AND THE FREAKING OLD MAN WOULDN'T MOVE AN INCH!!!

Anyway, when I finally hit the old man, pushing him so he would move, he started smiling.

"What're you smiling about!? MOVE GOD DAMN IT OR I'M DEAD!"

The old man smiled again, "Nice manners for a young man your age"

I twitched back at him, "Are you calling me a kid!?"

"ARE YOU CALLING ME AN OLD MAN!?" the old man yelled at me, while arrows and stones were still flying our way.

"Okay, I called you an old man, you called me a kid. We're even, bye bye!" I said and tried to push him to the side, of course to no extent. He was carrying some sort of bag, but I couldn't be bothered as to what that was right now.

As I heard yelling coming from the bad guys, I decided to take one last chance and push the sorcerer to the side. I wasn't gonna take it anymore, and as soon as I pushed him, I hear a loud splash.

_Heh, that serves you right._

As I kept running for my life, I felt a little heat coming from behind me. Suddenly, the whole ground beneath me apparently exploded, making me look charred and useless. It must've been the old man. He did look like a sorecerer, with the robe and all... I had very limited knowledge of magic, mostly revolving around weapon enhancements, but about attack spells I had no idea and I HAD BEEN HIT by a spell while trying to save myself from a group of bandits! Come on, my luck just couldn't get any worse! And I'm supposed to be LUCKY.

Finally, the old man came walking to me and smiled eerily. He was wet from head to toes. Soaking wet, I should add. I smiled nervously at him, he lifted me up and looked back. The bandits were way too close for me to start running again, but the sorcerer smiled at me and put his hands together.

"DILL BRAND!" yelled the old man, and all the bandits went flying up in the air with a spectacular circular explosion.

"Uhh..." I didn't know what to say at first.

The sorcerer got back his stuck up attitude and turned his back on me "Thank you would be nice"

"Thank you..."

"My name's Roy Horzt. And that's two you owe me now..."

"You charred me! I only owe you one!" I said.

_Where did that come from…?_

"I didn't mean that. You called me an old man..."

_And you called me a kid!_

Now that I took a good look at him he didn't look that old anymore... perhaps only a few years older than me.

"Anyway, thank you for your help, Mr. Roy. I should be going now...", I said, getting up and walking back towards the town by myself...

That's what I'd like to say, at least. When I looked back, Roy was still there, following me.

"What do you want!?" I yelled without turning back after a few minutes.

"A hundred gold pieces"

Now I turned back. Down on my luck as I may be, asking a poor traveler like me for money!? And a hundred gold pieces at that!? I must have looked extremely angry...

"If you rather have me go back to your pursuers and help them scry you..."

"N-no! please don't!"

_Scry me!? Damn! Stupid wizards and whatnot! I hate all that magic mumbo jumbo!_

"Very well then, a hundred gold coins"

"I... I don't have a hundred gold coins"

"Very well then, I'll be going now. We'll be seeing each other soon" he said while turning back, waving at me and backtracking

"H-hold on!" I yelled instinctively. I couldn't believe what I was about to say, but... if it saved me from certain death...

"What is it?", said Roy stopping right on his tracks, turning back to face me.

"I think I may... I may be able to get you those hundred gold pieces..."

"Interesting... I'm listening", said Roy.

And that's definitely why it wasn't gonna be a normal day... or week, for that matter.

After Roy and I got to town -one of those nameless towns that work as a resting place between major cities (considering we were pretty close to Ruvinagald City, it made sense for a large town to settle in) we stopped by the only inn there was. It was rather large, having about ten tables in the tavern and six rooms available, all with four beds (although I still wonder why many adventurers travel in groups of four. It's like a standard or something...). We booked ourselves a room and got a nice deserving meal.

"So, Logan... you told me you were gonna get me those hundred gold pieces, but you still haven't told me HOW", Roy said. I knew my plan might not sound great to him, but it did make sense, considering how down on our luck we mercenaries were right now. If there was a mercenary's guild of the coastal states, we would surely be on a strike!

I was choking down on a big nice steak -Ruvinagald was apparently famous for their meat, so this town was probably sort of popular because of that. Eating in a big city is freaking expensive, so smaller towns are the way to go for us down on our gold people (Damn you, goddess of money! You keep eluding me at every single step I take!) Who always want to try out nice meals- and as soon as I finished that, I spaced down and took a deep breath.

"Well", I said while still savoring that nice piece of steak... tender, tender! I raised the fork once it was clean and pointed outside "You know how mercenaries have been running out of jobs?"

Roy was just drinking coffee... I had no idea what the deal with him was, but he still looked pretty odd to me. Having the opportunity to try this marvelous steak and instead getting a plain, boring coffee... anyway, he looked at me with the least bit of surprise and said "And you of all people are out of a job? What a cruel world..." Sadly, sarcasm didn't go with me one bit, and I must've given him such a dirty look that he said, almost immediately, "But yes, I've heard about the shortage of works... isn't that supposed to be a good thing?"

It was a good thing as in there was nothing bad happening to anyone, but that meant I wasn't earning any profit! At all! "Nevermind that", I said, "anyway, the thing is, I have a plan..."

"And that is sure to work..." said Roy, once again sarcastically "I mean, considering how efficient you were while evading those bandits..."

_You've done it pal…_

Sadly, I still had to put up with the prick or he'd be chasing me with bandits and whatnot... and I decided to tell him about my plan. "You see, the thing is... if there isn't work, we could... sort of make them happen"

For a second, Roy there looked at me with a straight face, and then, for some reason, started laughing hysterically. So hysterically that even the bartender looked our way, and we were quite a few feet away from him. What was his freaking deal? First he saves me, then he charges me, as soon as he finds out I can't pay him he decides he will turn me in to those good-for-nothing bandits and then he laughs at my plan to pay him!

"Okay", he said taking a breath, "Tell me about your 'master plan'", he finished coldly and in a definite sarcastic tone.

With whatever face I could make after that, I said "Okay, so what we do is look out for the best conditions and..."

"Fix it so we can then come and casually 'offer our help'" said Roy, letting out a laugh, "Logan, you're definitely one of a kind. This is gonna be fun"

_Huh?! I didn't see that one coming_.

"So you're in for it?", I said with a big smile.

"Sure!" he answered, but then he showed his true colors and went all gloomy on me while getting up. "But I don't think I should remind you what would happen if you were to fail in paying me my hundred coins..." With that, he left for our room.

A chill went down my spine, and I finished my meal quitely in a few seconds, thinking what we should do first...

So, with Roy in his room and having that creep out of my face for a while, I thought having a nice walk outside where a marketplace was getting set up would be nice. I stood up, asked the waiter to charge it to our room (Did you expect me to do otherwise?! He was gonna pay for it and we wasn't gonna notice it!) and stepped outside. The workers were hard at it setting up all the stands, and the day didn't really help. Most of the workers weren't wearing shirts because of how hot it was, and even then they were all sweaty. After a few yards, I could see all the already set-up posts selling out fruits and vegetables, a few apparel items and all different kind of cloths. It was hard not to look at everything, but since I was so down on my gold, I decided to buy an apple that was about it.

"HELP!" I suddenly heard from quite ahead in the marketplace, a girl's voice... I had very good hearing, and it didn't surprise me no one else heard it, especially since all the work and yelling from the marketplace was taking place.

"Shaddup bitch!" I heard after a few seconds. This time it was male. I paid for my apple quickly, and while the clerk was thanking me, I walked away, taking a bite on my apple, and still moving forward, to where all the yelling was coming.

At some point, I stopped hearing all the cries from the vendors in the marketplace (you could say I have some sort of selective hearing...) and all my focus was on the cries from the girl and the other men. They were definitely going to rape her from what it seemed, and I couldn't let that happen... I mean, she sounded so cute, insecure and innocent! Anyway, I kept moving forward until the cries got louder and louder.

"STOP MOVIN' AROUND OR WE'LL KILL YA!", one of the men cried. I noticed they were on the back of an alley, a little off from where the marketplace was being set up. I took a small peak at the situation, and noticed five scoundrels and one cute petite blonde with green eyes that looked scared as all hell. One of the bastards was lifting her skirt with his knife while the rest were holding her tight, trying to keep her mouth shut.

_Yeah, they're definitely gonna rape her... rape her bad._

I took a deep breath and a step forward. Boy was I gonna regret this, but I should definitely save her...

"Hold it right there, fellas!"

The bandits took a moment and looked at me, a little awed that someone was standing right in front of them and actually wanted to stop them... and if something like this was gonna happen, I'm sure they weren't expecting such a young looking guy like me... there, I said it. Happy now? I look like a freaking kid.

"Scram kid unless ya wanna join her".

_Ew, thanks but no thanks, not my taste._

"You better let her go", I said heroically. I grabbed my bastard sword from the hilt -bought from an old man when I was 15 back in Laternia... that's what got me into this swordsmanship business- and pulled it out menacingly.

"Or what?" said one of the toughest looking bandit, who had a beard and a bandana on his head, taking out a knife and letting the girl go. It only took that to make all the bandits let her go and wave their knives at me.

_So you're their leader..._

The girl disappeared as soon as the bandits let her go and were focused on me. I tightened my grip on the hilt and stared menacingly at the group.

"Now, ya gonna take her place?"

_NO WAY IN HELL!_

I took a step forward with my sword and waved it at them, knocking their leader's dagger off from his hand.

"YOU BASTARD!" he said while holding his hand, clearly cut. "TAKE HIM, GUYS!" he said, while hurrying to his dagger.

I waved my sword a few times, holding the bandits in place as they came at me as waves. But there were five, and I was just... well, me. I tried fending them off for a while, but it was getting harder as they started attacking me in groups and some of their blades started getting through my defense and cut me at non vital parts, but very painful nonetheless.

"Hahahahaha" cried their leader, "We'll not be taking ya home, but ye'll definitely be going home in a bag!"

As I took a breather, I said with a wide smile "What, you're the master of clichés now?".

"WHY, YOU!!!" he yelled, and waved his dagger at me. This time, all five of them attacked me at once, flanking me from behind and on the sides. I could only do so much, but I was sure to get killed... as I closed my eyes, I waited for the final moment...

_At least I got to save that girl..._

Or so I would've thought, before I heard a loud bang and I was surrounded by a bright flash of light... Someone had cast a magic spell at the bandits and they just disintegrated before me. Turned to dust.

_Saved..._

I was saved! I turned around to thank Roy for saving me, but... he wasn't there!

_Note to self: thank Roy when you get back to the inn._

Too much of a breather, it seemed, and I was ready to get a deserved rest... at least I knew I wasn't gonna find Roy there to annoy me about my 'stupid plan', and when were we gonna get it started... but as I was walking outside the alley, the blonde girl appeared in front of me again. She wasn't much shorter than me, but that wasn't much to speak. She was definitely young though, as she had no breasts at all and her face was really cute... probably 14, 15 at best. She looked at me with her eyes wide open and I was unsure how to act.

"Thank you, sir!", she said happily. No kidding she was that happy, I just saved her from a gang of rapists...

I raised my arm behind my head and scratched it a bit, showing a little bit of nervousness, "You're welcome!". I could charge her, but that would make me as bad as Roy...

"Here, please take this!" she said, handing me a bag "It's all I have" she smiled at me widely. She wasn't as shy as she seemed at first, but she was definitely kind.

"No, I couldn't take it..." I said, laughing a bit.

_Wait, WHAT!? I'm REALLY down on my gold! I could use as little as anything! What on EARTH made me say! I blame thee, goddess of nervousness!_

"No, please take it" she said, putting it in my right pocket. I blushed a bit... I mean, I've never been so much as REMOTELY touched by a girl, and this one girl I just met put her HAND in my pocket...

_SHOO! SHOO, DIRTY THOUGHTS!_

"Th-thank you..." I said, blushing.

"My name is Maria! Thank you very much for saving me!" she said while running off with a smile.

I sighed, a bit from the stress I had accumulated from nearly dying -thanks to Roy I didn't... I reminded myself I should thank him after I got back to the inn-, but mostly from the nervousness of the encounter I had with Maria... she was really cute though. So I reached into my pocket and took out the bag Maria had given me. There were thirty gold coins in there... THIRTY GOLD COINS! This oughta lessen my debt with Roy!

Once I got to our room, I saw Roy laying on the bed, his robe hanging in a nearby chair. He was wearing your standard sorcerer's outfit, whatever that was, with simple black pants, a silver belt and a black shirt. I never noticed, but the guy did seem extremely suspicious, but I was tied to him... at least for now. I threw him the bag and he caught it and right away the greedy bastard opened it, emptying its contents in his hand.

"Nice, apparently your plan is working", he said after he finished counting them.

I shook my head, "You know where I got this from...". I sat down on my bed and watched as Roy started laughing at me. "What're you laughing at, you smartass?"

"You think I'm gonna babysit you all day? No sir, I have TONS of other things to worry about...", he said.

I shook my head again and looked outside, where the marketplace was finally done setting up and they were already selling all their goods. "Roy, you just saved me from that group of bandits".

Roy sat in place and stared at me, puzzled "What're you talking about, Logan?"

"The bandits that were trying to rape that girl! I know you saved me because of that magic thing of yours!" I said. Of course it had to be him, otherwise what could explain what happened back there in the alley?

"But Logan", Roy said while still staring at me. He waved his hands in disbelief, "I haven't moved from here since lunch". I must've looked puzzled enough to make him wonder, since he turned his gaze away from me and stared at the window, "But if it wasn't you..."

Roy looked back at me and smiled, "You must have some secret admirer or something!" I looked at him with my eyes wide open, it was definitely an enthralling idea! Having a secret admirer... could it be Maria?

_Ooooh that would be awesome... But I doubt someone as petite as her could cast a magic spell... but on the other hand, I would so love it..._

"Now that I think about it..." said Roy, "it does make sense that you have a _SECRET_ admirer..."

"What do you mean?", I said.

"Would anyone be so courageous as to publicly admit they admire you?" he said, sarcastically.

I got up, and with all my might punched the asshole's face so hard that it sent him back towards his bed.

"That was uncalled for!", he said.

"Then stop picking at me at every possible second!", I said and laid down in my bed, turned around and gave Roy my back, all the while thinking about Maria.

"And this is what you call a... job?", Roy said with a gloomy face and an embarassed tint in his cheeks. I must say, in my defense, this was the best I could get in less than six hours, and granted that we didn't have much money to stay longer in the inn, and we were gonna have to get moving in the next few days if we didn't want to get thrown out of the place.

I grinned at Roy and gave him my best heroic stance, "Of course it is! Save the damsel in distress!". But it was hard for me to believe that title, granted that special damsel I had gotten...

Roy took the cat and showed it to me, "So you're telling me you... catnapped this cat, asked her owner, a poor old lady, for 5 silver coins if you found it and came back to the inn where YOU deliberately put the cat?". He was getting pissed off, and that didn't sound nice to me.

"Well, it's the best I could think of since you've been pestering me about it all morning!" I sat down, frustrated. The cat was entirely white and it purred at Roy after he started cuddling him.

"You truly are one of a kind, my friend", said Roy, handing me the cat, "Go return it to her owner and tell her there's no need for the reward".

As soon as I stretched out my arms to grab the cat, it started hissing viciously, and when I took it, it started scratching my face real bad, "That's what you get for being such an ass, Logan", said Roy and opened the door. "Come on, let's go return the poor animal"

I handed him back the cat, and with my scratched face hurting like all hell, I started walking outside.

Once walking in the main street, I turned to Roy, "Hey, some healing spell would be nice".

Roy glanced at me gleefully, "Well, I suppose I could... but I rather not". The nerve of some people... and once it was back in Roy's perfect arms, it started purring again. Once Roy checked us out of the inn -we were gonna leave town after this-, we walked through the clean streets, the marketplace from the day before all but gone with no trace of it whatsoever, and the peacefulness of the town completely unstirred.

We got close to the old lady's house in no time. It was a rather small one storey more like a cottage, with a firm wooden door and two windows that looked at the street. The old lady had told me she couldn't pay the 1 gold fee for getting her cat back, and even reluctantly agreed to pay the five silver... but only on return of the cat. Come to think of it, the old lady seemed extremely disappointed by the fact that I wanted to charge for getting her cat back, but it's only natural! What, do I look like Rezo the Red to her?

No sir, I'm no philanthropist to go and help people just for the heck of it... except if it's some cute girl like Maria... I wondered how she was doing, when I suddenly hit someone.

"I'm so sorry, sir!", said a cute girl's voice. When I looked down, I glanced that all-too-familiar blonde hairdo and cute green eyes that had captivated me the day before, "Oh, Mr. Logan! I'm so glad we could meet again!"

"Maria!" I said, flushing from head to toes. I started reeking nervousness when Roy got my shoulder pads and started pulling me.

"Come on, Logan, we've got work to do...", he said, staring at Maria and then back at me and then back at Maria once again, "I'm sorry, miss Maria, we've got to get going".

Maria did nothing but smile at Roy, "Sure, go on your way. I hope we meet again!" she said and took off.

After that, Roy put his arm around my back and closed in on me with his face, "Not so much as a secret admirer but an admiree!"

I must have blushed horribly, since Roy started laughing out loud, "You're so predictable, Logan" he laughed, "Come on, let's return this cat".

Roy knocked on the door and the fat old lady with gray hair opened the door. She looked at Roy with distrust -I would too, considering he was wearing a black robe on top of all the other black he was already wearing- and then glanced back at me with disgust. "Oh, you got my cat back?" she asked dryly, looking piercingly into my eyes.

"Yes, m'am" said Roy with a big -definitely faked- smile, "We got your cat back" he said as he handed the cat back to the lady.

"Percieval!!!" cried the old lady.

_Percieval? What kind of a name is that for a cat!?_

Anyway, the lady got the cat and smiled wide at Roy, "Thank you, thank you very much!"

Roy smiled back, "No need to thank me, m'am" and as the lady was reaching to her pouch near a table that could be seen in the entrance, Roy stopped her, "Also, there's no need to pay us. We've got it all covered".

The lady gave me a cold quick look and turned back at Roy, smiling. What was it with people hating me all of a sudden?

_At least I had Maria..._

"But your friend there said..."

"Ah, my friend can be quite obnoxious at times, I know", said Roy patting me on my head... I'd get him for this later... "but don't worry, I'm here to keep him on a leash"

The lady smiled at Roy and once again thanked him and closed the door. Roy kept petting me on the head as long as the lady was there, and even as we walked out of the street, he kept his hand in there for a second. "DO YOU MIND!?" I said, moving his hand violently.

"Oh, sorry" he said smiling at me, "It's just that I was thinking about your plan..."

"Huh?" I couldn't say anything. That took me by surprise, especially since he'd been acting like that plan of mine sounded retarded or something. It really did seem out of place too when he grabbed me by my arm and ran with me to the outskirts of town, into a nearby forest just a little off the road.

"LOGAN!!" he yelled once he let me go.

"What's your idea, man? You wanna rip off my arm or something!?" I said. It didn't really hurt me at all, but the way he was pulling me made it seem like it was an urgent matter.

"I've got the PERFECT plan for making money!"

And that's when it started sounding extremely interesting...

"And don't worry, it doesn't involve cats. It involves something MUCH larger than that!" said Roy. I had a bad feeling about this, but the guy seemed smart enough not to let things like details pass through him.

"Well, I was thinking about you kidnapping someone and...", I said but Roy gave me a bad look.

"No, asshole, it doesn't involve any kind of -nappings..." he said and turned to the forest, "It includes the whole town!!"

_Oh, the whole town. That oughta make us some..._

_THE WHOLE TOWN!?!?_

"Yes! The whole town! I happen to know a place where some bandits are hiding" he said, and then looked down

"Though I better go talk to them by myself..." What was he talking about?

"Anyway, the thing is, if we could strike a deal with the bandits and make them attack town, and then we appear suddenly as the saviours that oughta give us a hefty reward!", he said excitedly. Heck, I didn't think it was even possible for this guy to get excited, but he definitely did. He even flicked his cloak to one side.

"But working with bandits... that's kinda nasty, Roy" I said.

"That's the thing! We don't have to WORK with them! Once they attack town, we take them out completely, and even if they call on us of making the plan with them, no one'll believe them!"

My eyes started shining just at the mere sound of those last words.

_No one would believe them, huh? If this was gonna work, it was gonna work BIG!_

And so we started trekking up north, where Roy said he knew the bandits were hiding. The forest started to seem a bit familiar, but then again all forests are alike, with trees everywhere. Once we got to a certain point in the forest, right after crossing a small creek, Roy turned to me and said "Okay, you stay here and I'll go make the deal with the bandits. Remember, stay put", he said, with emphasis on "put". Whatever... I was so excited about this thing working that I couldn't move at all!

_Riches and fame, here we go!!... even if they're artificially made. Wait, is artificially even a real word?_


	3. The Good, The Bad, and Lassadia

**2: The Good, The Bad and Lassadia.**

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* * *

  
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"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID THIS TO ME, YOU BASTARD!!!" I yelled at Roy, all the while slashing my sword right and left. Two bandits down, and the town was still in turmoil. A lot of people had fled -granted, more than fifteen bandits had appeared, and almost all of them were focusing on me. Most of the arcane lamps were off, even if it was pretty late at night, since most of them were either destroyed or the magi didn't get the chance to lit them up.

SLASH!

_Damn!_

I had to strafe right rather fast: one of the bandits was already on my trail and slashed his sword at me.

"More fighting and less talking, Logan!" said Roy from his end of the street. The turmoil barely let us talk to each other less concentrate on fighting as a group. Fifteen bandits was a huge number, even for a mercenary as myself.

"Flare arrow!" yelled Roy while a group of three burning red arrows flew into the chest of one of the bandits, making him drop instantly dead. He turned right while murmuring some words and said "Balus rod!" and a flash of light appared from his hand. He closed his hand and directed the ray of light towards another bandit and he too dropped dead.

I couldn't stop much to watch how this was happening, since another bandit had already jumped in on me with his dagger ready to stab me. I strafed left this time, moved a little more to the left and raised my blade so I could cut him while he was falling.

"Why don't you use a bigger spell!?" I yelled while evading a third bandit, which this time tried to stab me on the side. I quickly kicked him in the guts, while he was lowered forced my elbow on his neck and slashed for good measure.

"It's too crowded, I'd get ourselves in it's effect! Flare arrow!" he said, and this time six flaming arrows appeared, all directed at six different targets. Most of them fell down to the floor probably dead or unconscious, but a few of them stayed on foot.

Indeed the street was way too crowded for us to keep fighting like this and not damage either ourselves or the very town. So I took a leap to a nearby fountain in the town's main street and climbed until I could reach a rooftop. From then, I started running while three bandits kept on my trail.

From what I could see and hear, Roy yelled "Bomb di wind" and a group of two bandits went flying to the other end of the street, where they crashed against a nearby house.

I smiled and turned to my back, where the three bandits were still following me. "You're gonna pay for what you did to Gino!", he said.

I shrugged, "It was an accident!".

"Accident or not, you still killed him!", the other bandit yelled "Good thing your friend brought us to you!"

So that was Roy's plan from the very beginning. It had nothing to do with striking a deal with the bandits, but to tell them I was in town so they would come and attack town just to get me...

_DAMN these guys are hardcore! I'm gonna get Roy for this later..._

But for the moment I had to keep fighting! One of the bandits charged at me and I strafed a little to the right, making him lose his balance and fall face flat to the floor, while the other growled at me, "You won't get away with this, you bastard!", and leaped right in front of me, with his knife right to my throat. I could glance to my back that four other mercenaries were coming from the rooftop of the next house.

_Damn, please Roy... hurry up..._

"I really wanna see this knife go through your throat, you prick" growled the bandit that held me while the other three grabbed my arms and pulled my head backwards.

_Roy... please hurry up..._

"You... wish..." I said, and the bandit that was holding the knife to my throat took off his 'mask' and spat on my face.

"You bastard...!" he said, pulled the knife from my neck and was about to stab it when a flash of yellow light surrounded all of us.

"What the hell is this!?" yelled the one that was about to kill me. This seemed all too familiar...

_Roy! It has to be Roy!_

But didn't he say he couldn't use a large spell because it would catch us too in the explosion?

"AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" yelled one of the bandits. And soon after, all of them were grabbing their heads and eyes, and were slowly and painfully disintegrating before my very own eyes.

Again.

This definitely wasn't Roy. It was the same thing that had happened when I met Maria and saved her from those rapists. It seemed that someone really wanted to protect me or something. Suddenly, a male figure appeared right in front of me, with short black hair, probably 17, no older than that. He was wearing a black cape and a matching robe akin to a priest or... something.

"Who are you?" I asked instinctively.

"LOGAN! GET OUT OF THERE!!" yelled Roy from the floor. I had no idea what was his problem. This guy had just saved my life! And since he didn't charge me last time, I was sure he wasn't gonna charge me this time either!

"Come to Lassadia" said the man. I turned to Roy as if asking for an answer of who this guy was, but all I could see was his hands shining with lightning all the while he was murmuring some words.

"What?", I said turning my sight back to the man in black.

"Come to Lassadia in three days", was all he said. Lassadia was pretty close, a town a little off north of Ruvinagald.

"DYNAST BREATH!" I heard Roy yell, and a large magic circle, pentagram included appeared below the man in black. Bolts of lightning came hurling down towards him and all of a sudden, a large explosion ensued, and I had to cover my head and put all my might into standing on the rooftop of the house –or rather, what was left of it. When the smoke cleared, the man in black was still standing there, smiling. Roy looked shocked, and no words came from him.

"Who are you!" I said while the man started disappearing in a small tornado of dust.

"Come to Lassadia. You will understand then..." he said, and vanished completely.

Roy still didn't move, so I jumped down back to where he was standing and noticed all the bandits were gone.

_Now that I remember, that light did engulf everything I could see..._

Roy's sight was fixated where the man in black had stood. He was scared to death. "Roy? What the hell was that?", I said.

Roy slowly turned to me, "A mazoku..."

While we were resting in the inn after the intense fight, and deciding to spend one last night in town, Roy took out the bag with the reward we got from ridding the town of bandits -ten gold coins- and ordered some food for both of us. Now that I think about it, Maria did give me thirty coins... that's an awful lot of money. But she did say she gave me everything she had, so that's fine with me.

"What's a Mazoku?" I said while choking on some fried salmon.

"You really don't know?" said Roy while drinking some coffee after he had finished eating his pork. I shook my head. "I suppose you don't. They are pretty obscure beings. Mazoku are spiritual beings. Put it simply, they work towards a common goal of destroying everything in existence while feeding on negative human emotions"

"But that guy looked human enough to me..." I said, while finishing my salmon and proceeding to the steak.

"Mazoku can look human alright, but looks are deceiving. They are extremely powerful, and the more powerful the more human they will look to you."

"So why did your spell fail against that thing?"

"They don't really exist in the physical plane. As you may know, there's also the astral plane. Remember what I told you, mazoku were purely spiritual? Well, they reside in the astral plane and if they're powerful enough and wish to do so may manifest themselves in the physical plane. And they are HUGE" he said, with emphasis on huge, "in the astral plane. Let's say that Mazoku's astral body was the size of a mountain. If I cast Zelas Brid against a mountain, it would do little harm to it. And since Mazoku are astral beings, the effect the spell had on their physical body would have little to no effect against the astral body... you following me?" he said after a small pause, noticing I was still chunking down on some steak.

"Not really", I said with my full mouth "But I get the general idea. Mazoku are bad and magic can hardly do any damage to them"

Roy sighed and held his head with his right hand, "I guess that much would do..."

"Anyway, I wonder what's in Lassadia" I said still chunking on the steak. I would let the bandits deal pass now, granted we got money from it.

_And now I can get rid of Roy! I can leave at any moment and he wouldn't have any way to pressure me!_

"I have to wonder..." said Roy while looking at the door, where a group of people entered, between them Maria, "Oh look who's here". I had no idea why he changed the subject so suddenly, but I couldn't care less. Maria had entered the stage!

"Maria!!!!" I yelled with my mouth full, waving at her with my fork "Maria!! Come here!" I yelled. Roy must've felt ashamed of me since he hid his face in his hands, but I'm not one to take such a chance as this pass by!

"Oh! Mr. Logan! Mr. Roy!" she said. With that, Roy raised his head and looked at her.

"Ms. Maria, long time no see", he smiled at her while moving a chair to one side for her to sit. It was pretty late at night, but most of the villagers hadn't eaten at all since they had to flee.

"I heard what you two did for our town!" she said with a big smile, "I'd like to thank you for saving all of us!" she said, as lovingly as always.

"Yes, well, those bandits were piece of cake for the two of us, weren't they, Roy?" I said, stretching my arms behind my neck and smiling a bit nervously.

Maria smiled as adorably as humanly possible and even giggled a bit. I was thrilled by this reaction... she liked me!!

"I was actually looking for the two of you" said Maria, still smiling.

"Why would that be, Ms. Maria?" smiled Roy. There was something about his smile that didn't seem right, but once again, I couldn't care less!

"You two are mercenaries, right?" she said.

"Yup, and the best out there!" I said lifting my fork and my knife, striking any heroic pose I could think of as fast as possible.

"Not quite, we're not partners", said Roy, killing my moment. I gave a quick glare at him and he seemed as embarrassed as possible. Come on! We were working together! That I wanted to get rid of him had nothing to do with making as much money as possible! "We have... common interests at the moment" he said, giving me a dirty look.

_You found a new way of coercing me into paying!? You slick bastard…_

"Could I interest both of you in a job?" she said, in her ever cute attitude.

"Of course! If there's a job, we're into it!" I said still cheerful. A job for Maria! This was as good as it was gonna get!

"I need an escort to Lassadia, a few days walk up north"

_..._

_WHAT!?_

Roy should've looked as surprised as I did, but he didn't. What was with him? I mean, the mazoku had invited me to Lassadia earlier that night, and now Maria offered us a job to escort her to Lassadia.

"I need to depart tomorrow", she said, "are you interested?"

_Of course I am, but this was way too suspicious..._

"We are, indeed" smiled Roy before I could say anything, "How much are you willing to pay?"

"50 gold coins", she said.

This girl must've been RICH. 30 gold coins for saving her from rapists, 50 gold coins for escorting her to Lassadia which was a three day walk... and not THAT dangerous!

"Count us in", said Roy. Apparently, I had no decisive power in this 'society' of ours. How could Roy accept this job so easily? I liked Maria... I liked her a lot, but this was way too suspicious.

"Very well then", she got up, smiled and bowed... to hell with suspicious! She was so cute I couldn't care less! "See you tomorrow morning then. Have a good night's sleep" she said, and with a big smile left as cute as she entered.

"We better go upstairs, Logan", said Roy all of a sudden in a very serious voice. I don't understand this guy: first he accepts a job that looks suspicious out of the blue -never mind that it was Maria- and now he gets all serious on me!

Once we got upstairs, he closed the door and took of his robe and laid in a chair next to the window.

"What's with you?", I said.

"Nothing, I just got us a job that would ensure 25 gold coins less from your debt" he smiled again. Damn, his attitude was annoying me... he definitely was hiding something from me, but as soon as I took off my scabbard away from my belt, I knew I was way too tired to argue about whatever Roy was thinking. I just took his word and laid down on the bed, falling asleep.

Have you ever walked a long distance under a burning sun? It's like walking inside a steam bath without stopping for air. That's how it felt on our first day towards Lassadia. I could hardly talk, as my scale armor was suffocating me and not one cloud could be seen in the horizon.

"I'm gonna die at the tender age of 23..."

"Oh shut up, Logan. Stop complaining" said Roy with a big smile.

"How can you smile with the weather like this? I'd rather fight a hundred Mazoku all together than having to walk around with a gazillion degrees... IN THE FREAKING SHADE..." and with no shade whatsoever, I should add. Of course, I didn't say that.

Roy lifted his robe and showed me some silvery engravings it had. They were glowing, very nice looking, sorta rune-ish, but I could read runes and those were no ordinary runes at all.

"A mild weather control spell I had someone enchant my cloak with" he said while smiling slyly.

_Why you sorcerous son of a..._

I heard a mild giggle coming from behind. Maria was standing there, looking as cute as ever, without a care in the world other than looking directly at us acting like stupid buffoons.

"You two are quite a pair", she said.

Roy turned to her and smiled, "Thank you, miss Maria"

Maria smiled back at him, "No, I should be the one to thank you for helping me in this task"

"No need to thank us when you offered such a generous payment" half upfront, I should mention. I even paid Roy my share of the twelve gold and five silver coins "However," Roy said, "I feel I am entitled to ask... what business might you have in Lassadia?"

Maria's face suddenly changed to show a much serious and darker tone.

_What's with her? More importantly, what's with ROY asking that all of a sudden!?_

"That is... none of your business" she said.

_Whoa, caught me off guard there..._

Suddenly, she went back to her usual carefree, smiling face, "For fifty gold coins I would expect neither of you to ask about whatever it is we are doing" she smiled at me, and then back at Roy. I mean, she was cute, but all that suspicious behavior oughta put a doubt or two in anyone's mind.

Not in mine, of course. I was determined in helping Maria no matter what she wanted to do.

So we kept trekking for about three more hours until we reached a forest and decided to take a short rest before continuing halfway towards Lassadia and camp somewhere safe. Roy hadn't changed his carefree attitude ever since Maria hired us, and that bugged me more than anything.

The place we set up a fire to cook some fishes (which yours truly had provided, thankyouverymuch) was a rather calm looking clear a few minutes off the main road towards Lassadia. You see, forests in this area of the peninsula were usually pretty dense, and the trade road from Ruvinagald City to Lassadia (which is, I should add, a rather large city in the kingdom of Ruvinagald, one of the kingdom's main agricultural sources) was no exception. So while the road was very well defined as a trade route, it still ran in the middle of a forest, which made it a quite handsome spot for bandits and robbers waiting to assault their unexpecting preys. But we were three: one very skilled swordsman and a sorcerer with a dubious attitude. No worries there.

"I'll go get some fresh leaves and mushrooms to go with the fish", smiled Maria as she left.

"Fireball", said Roy in a very slow tone, casting a rather small yellow ball into his hands, and throwing it at the wood I had gathered previously in one spot. In a fraction of a second, all the wood was set ablaze and we had a cozy fire to go with the wonderfully hot temperature.

_Good thing the trees are forming some kind of a shade..._

"So, what do you make of her?", Roy said all of a sudden, startling me. I was focusing on the fish sticks I had planted on the ground, having them cook slowly to achieve a great taste. Yeah, I kinda tend to pride myself on my cooking skills: having lived all by myself for so long, I've honed my skills and learned to eat the best food at the best price in every stop. Back on track, I turned towards him and glared for a few seconds.

"Maria", he finally said.

"Ah..." I said, trying NOT to seem that excited. The fact that she was traveling with us had been on my mind for the whole day.

_She's wonderful, she's a goddess, she..._

"She seems alright", I smiled. BUZZ. Wrong.

However, without me noticing it, Roy had gone back to his previous dark self: "I don't know... she seems.. WAY too... alright..."

I made a weird face, but before he could continue, Maria came back with her dress full of fresh leaves to make a wonderful salad.

_Wait, is she cooking!?_

Two days of uncomfortable talking all the while walking ensued. Roy kept his charade of being a nice guy whenever Maria was close, and went all the way back to his insidious, sorcerous self whenever she left our side to gather mushrooms or whatever she wanted to make nice salads with. I have to say though, this has definitely been one of the most calm escort missions I've ever had. Seriously, no bandits, no assassination squads (not that we would ever catch the attention of any, except maybe for Roy, who could've made who knows how many enemies in his former travels), I just kept on polishing my sword whenever we had a rest because we had become that used to the calm of the forest.

"Just two more hours and we should be closing in on Lassadia," Roy announced "is there anything we should know once we get there, Ms. Maria?"

"No, do not worry. Once we reach Lassadia our contract will be over and I will pay you the other 25 promised gold coins" she smiled as sweetly as she could.

Roy's faced changed somewhat, giving her a slightly suspicious look.

_What's up with you, mate? You're not thinking of assaulting her and keeping all her money! Because I bet you'd be willing to do it!_

Apparently Maria never noticed and kept walking. So we kept moving on and after we reached the final part of the forest, after which laid the clear towards Lassadia, both Roy and I stopped on our tracks.

_Great, right when we were about to get there..._

Roy and I exchanged a quick glance at each other, knowing what we both meant.

"Something wrong?", said Maria. I turned around and quietly hushed her. She quickly retreated some distance between us while Roy was murmuring some words. I sensed the bloodlust coming from a group of bushes to the right of the road.

"Freeze arrow!" yelled Roy, while unleashing six clear looking ice arrows towards the bushes. The bushes were instantly frozen and all their surroundings too. It was a pretty impressive show.

_That oughta take care of them..._

SWOOSH. A creepy chill went down my spine and made me look upwards.

"Brass demons!?", said Roy. I had heard of them: hideous creatures that sported two wings... scratch that, four wings (for some reason, ever since last year, they started to appear with four wings instead of the regular two) and looked like a malformed human with horns and scaly armored skin. They weren't what you may call a common appearance, less a random encounter in a forest... and not one that you would like to find in your way protecting a defenseless little girl. See that scaly skin? A common sword could barely scratch it. And you know what's worse? There were FOUR of them.

"Maria, get some cover!" I yelled and leapt into the air, unsheathing my sword and slashing it against one of the demons in the air.

CLANK. It was no use... I knew it wouldn't be of any use whatsoever, but it could make at least one of them come down after me physically. I could see below that Roy was chanting some spell, but since my knowledge of magic was extremely limited (not to say null), I couldn't tell what was he casting. As I was landing, though, the group of demons instantly started shooting some sort of flare arrows towards us, but the sort that scorched the ground instantly.

_Not good, if I get hit by just one of those..._

But my plan worked and one of the brass demons followed me to the floor, where I clashed metal on scaly hands, only able to defend myself for the time being.

"RAY WING!" yelled Roy while getting closer to me and the demon, and a huge wind barrier surrounded us just in the moment the demons were casting down more of their special flare arrows. Of course, they crashed against the wind barrier and couldn't get through.

"Can't you do something about them?" I said, while still defending myself against the one I had managed to get on my grounds. It was still very hard, as he tried to lunge me with his scaly hands, which would have not been nice at all. Did I mention they had scaly nails too? And very long ones at that... "I don't know, cast a fireball or something!"

"I can't!", he said while maintaining the wind barrier in place, all the while the demons loomed ominously in the air "First of all, I let go off Ray Wing and we'll be easy prey to those bastards attacks, and second, one big attack spell and the whole forest'll be set ablaze! Besides, it'll do nothing against them!"

_No good!_

CLANK! I slashed again against the demon's skin, this time with all my might, but still not a single scratch showed up in his scaly skin. I wasn't doing as much good as defending myself and it was only a matter of time until the demon decided to stop playing with me and unleashed some uncanny magic against me and I was done for.

Roy then turned towards me, "I think I may have a plan!" he said.

_Please, anything that can save us here is welcome..._

"Get ready to take cover!" yelled Roy and he released the wind barrier. I instantly rolled to one side, at the same time the demons unleashed a new barrage of projectiles at us.

"Levitation!", yelled Roy and he was sent up in the air, moving out of the way of the barrage. The brass demon I had been fighting didn't notice everything happening so fast, and in an instant he was barraged by his comrades attack. Badly hurt, he was still standing though.

"Elmekia Lance!" Roy yelled after a few seconds, and a large light spear appeared in his hand, instantly impaling the brass demon that was too confused to care for Roy casting a spell against him. After the spear disappeared, the demon dropped dead in an instant.

"Way to go!", I yelled from the frozen bushes I had taken cover in. I rushed against one of the demons, slashing left and right to fend off their attacks and keep them occupied.

There was still one of the brass demons in the air, and he kept barraging against us, only this time it was a lot easier to evade, granted it was only one of them firing at us and not three.

_Damn, if this keeps going on we'll..._

I lunged against the demon, trying to at least scratch him, but it was impossible. As I had left an opening in my defenses, the other demon was getting ready to impale me with his scaly nails...

"Astral break!", yelled Roy and the demon was instantly pulverised. I gave Roy a quick thank you look, and went back to defending myself against the demon at hand. This time, he lunged against me, but I evaded him and blocked his attack with my sword.

I could only take a quick glance, but I noticed how Roy was soaring higher with his levitation spell, while the demon in the air kept firing his barrages at us. However I could easily avoid them, all the while concentrating on defending against the other demon.

"Elmekia Lance!" yelled Roy, and killed the third demon. He was beginning to come down to aid me, but then the demon hit me in the gut, impaling me with his right hand.

"GAHH!!!" I yelled, coughing up blood in the brass demon's face.

"Logan!!!!" said Roy as I could see him rushing towards me.

"GGAAAAHH!!!" I yelled once again, this time striking the demon with all my might and anger. I think I could heard a loud crackling noise in the air, but I lost consciousness shortly after that.

When I came to, I could only see Roy staring at me, murmuring some words. I must've been out for quite a while, since it was already dark and the stars could be clearly seen. Roy had set up a fire close to us, and in the meantime he had his hands pressed against my stomach.

"Stay still", he said, "I learned this from a priest a few months ago, it oughta heal you. You're lucky you didn't get killed..."

I tried to say something, but it hurt so much I couldn't possibly even try to move. Even moaning was painful.

"You had a hole in your stomach", Roy smiled, "you're lucky I know the resurrection spell..."

I had heard of that spell before, but I've never seen it into action. It doesn't technically resurrect the dead, but it does manage to heal serious wounds that have your life on the line. Roy was full of surprises alright, first casting off all kinds of offensive spells and now being able to use resurrection on me. I may not like the guy, but he was definitely something.

"Did you use Astral Vine or something?" he said, "No, don't answer", he said while noticing I was about to attempt to start speaking.

Astral Vine was a spell that could enhance one's weapon to strike targets on the astral plane: I have had my sword enchanted with it a few times, but since the duration is somewhat short (more or less for one battle and that's about it), I had had to pay a hefty amount to get it each time. Sadly, I didn't know the spell -nor could I cast it, mind you-, so I had no idea what was he talking about.

"Wh--where's..."

"Maria?" he said, still laying his hands in my stomach. The warmth coming from his hands felt good, and I was starting to feel better: at least I could talk. "I have no idea. I haven't been able to look for her and she hasn't answered any of my calls. Maybe she got caught up as collateral..."

I felt awful. She had paid us to get her safely to Lassadia and I couldn't protect her. If she had been near us, she might have gotten caught up in the battle by one of the demon's attack spells. She was most likely dead by now.

"Just a few more minutes, Logan, and we'll be through", he said tenderly.

_Heh, maybe this guy isn't so bad after all..._

When I started feeling better, enough so I could walk by myself and heal over my own body's healing powers in a matter of hours, everything started coming out very suspicious.

"I don't think this Lassadia business is good for our health, Logan..." said Roy with a sly look in his face.

"I know everything seems very suspicious, but if we don't go to Lassadia, what d'you reckon'll happen?", I inquired.

"Well, that Mazoku'll probably keep looking for you and at some point might even try to kill you. I doubt these brass demons appeared randomly... either someone must've summoned them -someone with A LOT of power, since common sorcerers can hardly command only one of them with a summoning spell...- or they were sent here by some high-ranking Mazoku..."

"So you're saying that they were sent here by that guy we met back in town?"

"Most likely..." he said, while getting up, "You can walk by yourself, right? I doubt we'll be attacked on our way to Lassadia: if that Mazoku wanted to kill us, he would've showed up by himself, or he would've stricken us down back when we were fighting those bandits..."

I nodded, and got up. Suddenly, we heard a loud BANG in the distance, and a large column of smoke was rising up from...

_LASSADIA!_

I started running, but Roy stopped me, grabbing me by my shirt, "You can't fight in that condition"

"I know I can't", I winked, "but surely a guy that can kill four brass demons without so much as sweating can take on whatever's on Lassadia right now..."

Roy smiled, "You're one of a kind, did you know that?" and let me go, all the while we were running.

The large city of Lassadia, once the center of agriculture in the kingdom of Ruvinagald, was set ablaze. Every single building was burning, and all the locals were running crazed out of fear. Most of the streets were covered in blood and the landscape was grim and disgusting. It seemed more like a slaughterhouse than a regular town, and anger built up in my soul. This was definitely that guy, this was his doing. But what did he want with me?

Somehow, I started feeling better all of a sudden, all my wounds seemed like a thing from the past and I couldn't feel so much as a scratch in my stomach.

"How're you feeling?", said Roy.

"Alright... I guess", I outright lied. I didn't feel anything from my wound earlier, but I did feel sick to my stomach when I saw the disgusting scenery before us.

Suddenly, the man in black materialized in front of us.

"Welcome to Lassadia," he said with a sickening smile in his face.

"YOU!", I yelled and charged after him. I felt something strange in my blade, it was definitely glowing, but I wasn't bothered by it, and just kept on. He easily dodged my attack by disappearing and appearing right next to me, punching me in the gut. I coughed up some blood; I hadn't healed completely apparently.

"Easy now, boy. Easy" he smiled.

"What do you want with us?", Roy said.

"With you not much," he turned his gaze to Roy. I was recovering and put my blade back in position to fend off any kind of attack that might come.

"Who are you? Who sent you?" demanded Roy, while I ran towards him and noticed he was preparing some sort of defensive spell of sorts.

"If you must know, my name and title is Norst, priest of Dynast"

Those names didn't mean anything to me, but Roy on the other hand seemed shocked and impressed. Norst stared at us, laughing.

"Dynast Grausherra!?", said Roy. The name sounded like it came from a creepy overlord in children's stories, but Roy spoke it with utmost care.

"Lord Dynast himself" he smiled, "And thank you for attending my small invitation. Please, make yourselves at home", he smiled and disappeared.

But then, I noticed someone else walking from where Norst had disappeared...

"No...", I said.

I saw Maria standing right before us, with bloodlust in her eyes and a clear wicked smile in her face.

_This isn't happening..._


	4. Sword? What's wrong with that sword?

**3: Sword? What's wrong with that sword?**

**

* * *

  
**

Maria stood in front of us, as if challenging us. As soon as Norst disappeared, Roy started smiling.

"So, I take it you're disappointed that your brass demons didn't finish the job?", smiled Roy. Maria suddenly shifted to her old cute persona which was, by this moment, not fooling anyone.

"I thought they would, but... may I ask, Mr. Roy... what gave me away?"

"Not too bright for a Mazoku, are you?", said Roy. Maria seemed fazed by this, "We never gave you our names and you blatantly came to us using them... also, 30 gold coins for saving you from bandits? That's a bit too much, don't you think? And the work to Lassadia, just after Norst came to us kindly inviting Logan... and fifty gold coins? It's as if you weren't taking any possibility in us not taking the job..."

Maria started smiling again, with her usual cute face and demeanor, "You are bright, Mr. Roy, for a human being," she said, "sadly, you're going to die here" and with that took a leap into the air. I was shocked, I just couldn't move.

"Levitation!" yelled Roy and started floating up. I could only watch how the two started dueling.

_She... she's a Mazoku?_

I guess all the signs were there for me to see that she was no ordinary person, and she was indeed way too friendly towards us. I guess I was just that gullible.

Once in the air, she shifted her sight back to me and smiled, "I guess for whom you really are, Mr. Logan, you can be quite simple". She then turned towards Roy again and a ray of eerie purple light went flying from her hands towards Roy. He had put up a barrier earlier and the spell was deflected rapidly.

Roy smiled, "Balus rod!" he yelled and a whip of light formed in his hand, going straight towards Maria. She didn't so much as flinch when it touched her. Instead, she completely opened her eyes, revealing her bloodlust and started laughing.

"That tickles!", she said, and lifted her arms and threw a new beam of puprlish light towards Roy. This time, apparently, his barrier wasn't being held so he fell from the hit.

"ROY!!" I yelled and ran where he was about to fall. However, he lifted himself up and kept floating.

"Nothing to worry about", he smiled and went back up. "I guess I shouldn't be holding back against you, Ms. Maria... though that's probably not your name, is it?"

"Oh, please don't", smiled Maria, "my real name is Mgudza, though I doubt that will do you any good", she said and threw further purplish light beams towards him, all of whom Roy avoided.

"Very well then," he smiled and started murmuring some words.

_**  
**__You, who sleep in the depth of the earth  
Dynast, who has a soul of ice  
Give me your freezing wrath._

"Oh, you'll be casting the spell of Lord Dynast against me?", said Maria.

"DYNAST BREATH!", Roy yelled and a large chunk of ice formed in the floor, crawling all the way up towards Maria, encasing her in the ice.

Suddenly, the ice shattered, but Maria was still untouched.

"Did you think you could defeat me with such a trick?", she smiled and charged against Roy.

"Mgudza", a familiar voice reverberated.

_Norst._

"My oh my", said Maria and she turned back towards Roy, smiling "I guess we'll have to conclude this at a later time, Mr. Roy", she said and disappeared.

Roy came back down and looked at me fazed at Maria's current development.

"Let's go, Logan. We have to save the city..." he said, pointing at the hordes of Brass Demons attacking town. I wouldn't move, but since Roy started pulling me from my shirt, I had no other choice.

It took us quite some time to finish up all the Brass Demons that had plagued the city, but we finished it however. Roy had talked me into it, telling me how Maria had been tricking us all along and that if we didn't stop her the whole city of Lassadia would be destroyed.

After we finished and organized most of the citizens that were still alive in shelters all around Lassadia, we decided to take a break and rest for the time being. As Roy pointed, Norst's target wasn't him but me, and he didn't really want me dead or he would've killed me right away.

"What makes you think this Norst guy is SO powerful?", I said sitting down in a bench in what was left of the inn.

"Well, he did introduce himself as the priest of Dynast..."

"And what's with this Dynast guy...?"

"Ah, right. Well, you know about the Koma war, a thousand years ago?" I nodded. It was a pretty bloody war, when one of... what's-his-face's pieces fought... okay, so I didn't know ALL the details, so I flunked history in school... sue me!

"One of Ruby-Eye Shabranigdu's pieces was awaken and a huge battle came along. Stop staring at me like that, you should at least know who Shabranigdu is! The king of all chaos, the lord of all Mazoku! Anyway, the guy was split in seven pieces a gazillion years ago, and only one of them is incredibly powerful. The thing is, he had created five minions, one of them Dynast Grausherra: one of the most powerful Mazoku alive. And in turn, during the Koma war, each of Ruby-Eye's underlings created generals and priests. So saying he's a priest of Dynast is a pretty damn big statement..."

"So he like, ranks third from top to bottom?", I said

"Sorta... the thing is, we can't defeat him, not with common magic and definitely not with a sword..."

"But you said he wasn't interested in killing us..."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean he has nice plans in his mind... Whatever Norst and Maria, no... Mgudza are planning must be up to no good."

Suddenly, we heard uproar outside what was left of the inn. The building itself was pretty much left untouched, but everything inside had been either burned out or ransacked in the panic. Both Roy and I got up and walked towards the door, with me still feeling very heavy from the revelation Maria wasn't human at all and that she had been manipulating us all along. So we opened the door, and found that a group of residents were fighting over a loaf of bread.

I ran up to them, "Hey you guys! Stop it!"

"What're you meddling in here!? As soon as you got here those demons attacked us!", said one of the men.

_Huh?_

"Yeah, that's right!", said another, "Maybe we should kill both of you!"

_What the hell's going on!?_

I took a quick leap to avoid a man with a knife that was running directly towards me, all the while Roy cast a quick levitation spell and lifted us both off the ground. We then started flying out of town, to get some shelter near a few mountains on the outskirts Lassadia. We found a comfortable cave and settled in.

"What's with those people!? We just saved them!", I said. Lately, I had been getting angry at every single thing that happened.

"It's the Mazoku's influence. Not just Brass Demons, Mazoku can bring up the worst of any person. You see, that's why we can use black magic"

Ah, I'd heard something about that: black magic spells were actually drawing power from demons or something of the like, so...

"Wait, what do you mean by that?", I really didn't quite get it.

"I told you, Mazoku feed up on people's despair, hatred and anger. Black magic is just the way for Mazoku to tell us "Here, let me give you a bit of my power so you can feed me up", sort of speak..."

"So when Mar.. no, Mgudza said you were using Dynast's spell she meant..."

"Exactly, I was drawing power from Dynast Grausherra. And the fact that she wasn't affected by it is pretty impressive, and most likely means she's no ordinary Mazoku"

I sat down on the cave, looking at the fire we had set up a few minutes before, still trying to get everything that had just happened into my head. What were we supposed to do now? Mar... I'm sorry, Mgudza was still out there, and so was Norst, and they could attack Lassadia at any moment just to provoke us out of our hiding. But all of a sudden, a loud crackling noise was heard outside, along with a disgusting splash of sorts.

"What was that?", I said.

"Let me go check, you still have to recover completely from your injuries"

"No way, I'm going!", I said and ran outside with Roy.

As soon as I stepped out, I saw the heads of both men that had challenged us back in the city impaled in tree branches, while their bodies were hanging upside down from a tree. I'll spare the details for those of you who want to eat today. Or ever.

I felt like I was going to throw up when Roy looked up. Partly to avoid watching that horrendous frame any longer, I followed Roy into looking up, and there was...

"Mgudza", he said.

"Hello, Mr. Roy, Mr. Logan. I brought you these gifts, I thought you may like them", she smiled at us.

"You bastard!" I yelled and took a leap in the air. I quickly unsheathed my sword, which started glowing again, and before I knew it I struck Maria on the side.

"You think that's going to..." she stopped midsentence when she noticed my blade had struck her in the side and cut her in half. She then let out a deafening scream and her body was cleanly bisected by my sword.

"Logan!!" I heard from below, it was Roy, who in turn had been attacked by a horde of brass demons AND lesser demons this time. Lesser demons were more likely to be random encounters in travels, all of them having a humanoid shape but looking grotesquely enough to make one who had just eaten empty up all their stomach's contents.

_Great..._

"Why you...!" yelled Mgudza and struck me with her fist. She didn't look like it, but she made me land back in the floor with a sharp pain in my gut, once again.

_Damn it..._

I got up as fast as I could while Roy yelled "Dill brand!" and a huge chunk of earth split from the ground and went flying upwards, all with five of the lesser demons. I gasped for air and this time I noticed how my blade had been glowing.

"Is it the sword, Mr. Logan?" said half-Mgudza, and then her shape changed to that of a vicious monster, with fangs in her... scratch that, it's waist, and flaming hair -literally made of fire-. Her... it's eyes -or rather her eye sockets- glowed viciously red and she had nasty looking tentacles coming from her sockets. It had no mouth whatsoever, and anything it spoke came from the mouth in it's waist, "Or is it you!?", she continued while charging at me from the air, landing on my gut with her fist.

I lifted my blade and struck at it side badly hurting it I could tell from the loud scream it went with. It's huge grotesque hands kept attempting to strike me but I somehow managed to dodge her every attack rolling right and then left, and getting up with a quick leap.

"Are you alright, Logan?!" yelled Roy while still battling some of the demons on his side, throwing off a few spells left and right just to harm them enough. However, no matter how skilled a sorcerer Roy was, there were too many demons for him to handle alone.

I didn't answer to his question, instead lunging towards Mgudza and impaling her with my sword. It let out another deafening screech, as I felt I was doing some real damage to it. It wasn't moving as agile as it had begun it's attack, and it didn't have some of it's witty comments to spare either. I forced my blade into it's... mouth, or whatever that thing in it's waist was, "GAAAAAHHH!!!" I yelled while Mgudza's screech was getting louder and louder.

"ENOUGH!" I heard coming from the air. I lifted my gaze and noticed how Norst had appeared out of nowhere, sporting his arrogant look and voice, "Enough of this, Mgudza!".

"But Lord Norst, I...!", the monster before me somehow said.

"ENOUGH I SAID!", yelled Norst and sent flying a yellow ray of light that knocked me off balance and had me take out the sword from Mgudza's... mouth.

"Rest, Logan Feniss, we will see each other soon enough", said Norst and disappeared.

Mgudza then turned back to her old self, the cute small girl I had fell for back in town, "This isn't over, Mr. Logan", she smiled and disappeared. It might have been just my imagination, but she was lacking both an arm and a leg. I then took a moment to grasp for air and ran to help Roy who was still fighting three lesser demons: he had already disposed of all the brass demons.

I swung to one of the demons and it laid before me, dead, while another jumped towards me.

"FIREBALL!", yelled Roy and blew up one of the lesser demons, while I impaled the last one with my sword as he fell towards me.

"Are you okay?", I said. Roy looked tired and hurt: we could both use a good night's sleep.

"Yeah... what about you?", he smiled.

"I'm... fine, I guess", I said.

"I didn't know you could use Astral Vine", he said. He had mentioned that before, back when we thought Maria was dead.

"I..." I didn't know how to put it, but I couldn't deny the fact that my sword had been acting really strange lately, "I can't..."

"What?", said Roy.

We took shelter in another cave, this time Roy taking enough precautions for us not to be tracked by either Maria/Mgudza or Norst, even though by his own words he wasn't quite sure how safe we would be against a Mazoku of Norst's ranking and what he thought was a pretty powerful one too. We took turns to rest up our injuries in the string of battles we had today and to even take a chance of really digesting everything that had happened so far. He hadn't spoken a word to me about my sword again, but he still didn't seem satisfied by that "I wouldn't even know how to cast a spell" I gave him earlier. There was no helping it, though: I was pretty certain my sword wasn't more than a regular bastard sword and so was Roy, so the way it was acting barely had any explanation.

We had been dining on some boar Roy had managed to hunt -and roast- while I was setting up the shelter when he suddenly started speaking out of the blue.

"There's another possibility...", he said with a gloom look in his face.

_This doesn't sound good... not to me at least..._

"What do you mean?", I inquired.

"Remember the story I told you about Shabranigdu back in Lassadia?", he said, I nodded, "Well... bear with me here, this is gonna be a bit long...

"Where should I start... more than five thousand years ago, there was a war between Ruby Eye Shabranigdu, lord of the Mazoku, and Flare Dragon Ceifeed, lord of the Shinzoku... well, the Shinzoku are basically the 'good' side of the coin of the world. You could call them Gods, if you will: while destruction is every Mazoku's goal, creation and preservation is the goal of every Shinzoku.

"The war had been going on for aeons and it was beginning to get to a stalemate, but Flare Dragon used up all his remaining power to seal up Shabranigdu and divide him in seven pieces. Hoping he would eventually disappear completely, he sealed those fragments in human beings" I was about to ask a question, but Roy seemed to read my expression rather quickly, "Yes, Ruby Eye created his subordinates before that: Greater Beast Zelas Metalium, Deep Sea Dolphin, Chaos Dragon Gaav, Hellmaster Phibrizo and Dynast Grausherra himself.

"In turn, Flare Dragon created his own subordinates right before he used up all his power to seal Ruby Eye: Aqualord Ragradia, Flarelord Vrabazard, Airlord Valwin and Earthlord Rangort.

"You see, a thousand years ago, Ruby Eye's five subordinates had detected that one of their lord's fragment was sealed in the renowned sorcerer Lei Magnus, and staged a large scale conflict to release him. This is how this peninsula came to be known as The Demon's Peninsula, being sealed from the outer world: Hellmaster, Greater Beast, Dynast and Deep Sea had set up a barrier making both physical and spiritual contact with the outside world impossible..."

"What happened with Chaos Dragon?", I asked.

"No one really knows: I think he was defeated by Aqualord Ragradia before being defeated himself. The important thing here is... you see, for their own goal of total annihilation and destruction they even went as far as forcing one of Ruby Eye Shabranigdu's fragments to appear in this world. That was the whole reason behind the Koma War: to have Ruby Eye resurrected. He wasn't defeated though, and he still resides frozen. But there are still six more fragments for Ruby Eye's subordinates to mess with... and since Aqualord was defeated in the Koma War... there is basically no Shinzoku here that could help us..."

_Oh shit... you've got to be kidding me..._

"I'm no Mazoku, if that's what you're asking...", I said, clearly annoyed.

"I'm not saying you are, Logan. But you have to admit there's a possibility: Norst doesn't want you dead for some reason, and the chances are high that you have one of Shabranigdu's fragments residing with you"

The mere thought of that repulsed me, and I threw away my boar steak, landing far away from the cave. A few minutes later, a group of carrion birds had started eating it. I was left speechless, and disgusted: I couldn't speak even if I wanted to. What was more, I had to force me from punching Roy in the face for even suggesting that.

"I'm not saying this is final, but..."

"But what, you just implied I'm some kind of demon king! That's outright rude, if not disgusting!"

"I wasn't implying anything, Logan... I was just saying that there's a possibility. Lei Magnus was extremely proficient in magic; he had powers beyond comprehension..."

"But just because my blade can shine doesn't mean I'm some sort of evil guy!" I said, while getting up and started walking outside.

"Where are you going...?" asked Roy, only as if to see if I changed my mind. He didn't seem interested in stopping me.

"I'm gonna go take some fresh air..." I said and walked out.

I was definitely feeling horrible: being told you weren't who you thought you were was bad enough, but being told you were some sort of reincarnation of a demon king? Hell, even in my wildest dream I would never think I was that important. What's even more: I DIDN'T want to be that important... but if what Roy had said was right...

_I have to settle this..._

I walked a bit up north and started going in circles for a while, thinking about what to do. I had to make a decision, and it had to be final. Mazoku lord or not, I had to fight, I had to stop Norst and Maria/Mgudza... even if it meant killing myself. I started closing in on Lassadia, back where we had been chased out by citizens, only to see how everything was starting to get better. All doors and windows were closed: everyone was probably sleeping, granted they had had an horrible day and it was pretty late at night -or very early in the morning, depends on how you want to put it. All the arcane lamps were either off or destroyed by the brass demons, and the streets still had some of it's previous foul stench: a mixture between a slaughterhouse and a burned down forest. There was no street left unmarked by the battle, with traces of blood everyone. I went to the center of the city and sat in one of the few benches that had been only mildly torn by the demons, watching the fountain still giving away it's water from the top basin, overflowing into the middle basin and falling down to the bottom. I guess water soothed people, thus they decided to leave it on, powered by whatever magical device it had installed in it.

I suddenly felt a cold chill go down my spine and I turned away, and I could swear I saw a shadow run past me, very quickly.

_Must've been nothing..._

When I turned back towards the fountain, I noticed Maria/Mgudza sitting in the air, right in front of me, smiling as usual.

"I see you've decided to settle this, Mr. Logan", she said with her usual cute tone. It was disgusting.

"What do you Mazoku want with me, Mgudza?" I said. I thought she was going to change to her true form, but she didn't. Instead, she crossed her legs and stared directly at me, her eyes showing no malice whatsoever.

_Mazoku can really be deceiving..._

"Well, your friend Mr. Roy may have brought you up to date with what's on our minds..." she said with a sly smile on her face, closing in on me.

_So they really think I am Shabranigdu..._

I got up defiantly and smiled, "I'm not this Shabra-whatshisface you think I am... so you can stop trying now"

"We'll see about that", she said and changed to her demonic form once again, charging against me. I immediately drew my sword and fended of against her, only this time my sword wasn't glowing and nothing happened when I clashed against her with all my might. "Are you too tired, Mr. Logan?" she said in a deep voice coming from the mouth in her waist. She then threw off another punch at me, forcing me to take a leap to the right, right on top of the fountain. I almost slipped, but managed to keep my balance upright, holding myself from the edge of the fountain.

"You just haven't seen anything yet", I smiled arrogantly. Seriously, I wasn't even such a great mercenary, relaying mostly on luck... what got into me into challenging a Mazoku like that, I can't figure it out for the life of me.

"GAAAAH!!" I took a leap into the top basin of the fountain and charged at her mid-air and lunged with my sword in her face. CLANK! Nothing happened, my sword bounced and I fell to the floor, almost losing my balance once again.

"What's wrong with you, Mr. Logan?", smiled Mgudza... however someone how's mouth in her waist and it's mostly composed of fangs can smile. I leapt up back to my feet and charged at her again, clashing against her tough skin, making her retreat at least just a bit from the force of impact.

At the time, some Lassadians had started coming out from their houses, watching me battle the hideous monster.

"Take cover, all of you!" I yelled, and most of them went back to their houses, but some of them had been way to curious to let this go.

Mgudza then leapt in the air, extending her arms (or whatever you wanna call fanged lumps of flesh that can move as arms) over her head (or whatever you wanna call a lump of flesh with only crimson-lit eye sockets with vicious tentacles coming out from it) and sent flying a purplish ray of light towards me. I had to leap right and left to avoid them, all the while they kept coming. Finally, she sent out one of the tentacles that came out from her eye sockets down towards me, grabbed me by my ankle and lifted me up. I struggled to get free, but I couldn't. I tried to reach the tentacle with my sword, but was unable to.

"I think you may want to watch this", said Mgudza/Maria, lifting me up in the air and then using both her arms to form up a giant ball of purplish light on top of them. She turned her head towards me, and I swear I could see her waist smiling.

Finally, the ball of light left her hand, falling down towards Lassadia, where all the citizens were either sleeping or watching the dreadful fight between me and Mgudza.

"NO!!!!!!" I managed to yell, but the ball then hit the ground and a huge explosion ensued. I could see every single house being destroyed, every single inhabitant being mercilessly murdered by the monster that I was fighting. The city was completely obliterated, and all I could feel was anger: they were doing all this just because they wanted that fragment of Shabranigdu that was inside of me? And they weren't even certain that I had one... they were doing this based on A POSSIBILITY.

"NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I yelled once again and lifted my sword, instantly cutting Mgudza's tentacle. I began falling as I could hear a loud screech coming from the monster and as I glanced below me, the huge dust cloud that had been lifted by the explosion was starting to dissipate. What I saw was awful: where once a huge city had stood, only a wasteland of death was left. All its inhabitants were gone, simply erased.

As I fell to a certain death, I felt sort of relieved: if I died, they wouldn't be able to awaken the fragment inside of me, even if there was one.

"RAY WING!" I heard from a distance. Roy's voice. He came rapidly towards me and saved me from falling into the ground "You still owe me seventy two gold and five silver, buddy, I'm not counting what we did back in town. I'm not gonna let you die that easily", he smiled. All I could do was smile back.

As we came down and Roy lifted his flying spell, he smiled once again, "Let's do this, alright? Let's defeat Mgudza and Norst, and prove them wrong. Prove them that you're not one of Ruby Eye's fragments waiting to be awakened".

I smiled back and took a strong grasp of my blade, "Let's do it, mate", I said, and we ran towards the dissipating wall of cloud. We couldn't see anything clearly, but what we could feel was clear death on our surroundings.

"Here she comes! Fireball!" yelled Roy and threw the ball of light towards a shadow that as forming slowly in the cloud.

"Hehehe, that tickles!", said Mgudza and one of her tentacles almost grabbed Roy this time, but he leapt right and managed to avoid it. I ran to the right, flanking Mgudza with my sword, which I noticed started glowing again. I lunged forward as the cloud of dust had completely dissipated and could make out her figure clearly. My blade went all the way into her flank was motive enough to hear the loud screeching noise Mgudza's waist had started to make.

"NOW, ROY!" I yelled.

"BALUS ROD!" yelled Roy and a large whip of light formed in his hand, wrapping around Mgudza and shocking her with electricity. I pushed my sword forward with all my might, her screeching being even more deafening with every pound of strength I put in my blade.

Once the whip of light disappeared from Roy's hand, he leapt in the air. "MOVE!", he yelled. I pulled my sword from Mgudza's flank, quite painfully for her I might add, and ran towards my right, getting as far away as possible from Mgudza. "DILL BRAND!" yelled Roy and a circle started forming in the ground the pained Mgudza was standing. It suddenly lifted and all the debris that went up with it started falling quite rapidly, Mgudza included.

She got up rather swiftly, and started laughing, "Do you think that's going to be enough?" and threw up a barrage of purplish rays towards both me and Roy. Roy came back to the floor quite close to me, and we were forced to get separated quickly while evading Mgudza's barrage.

I leapt right and rolled a few yards to avoid her barrage, all while Roy was probably doing the same. I leapt forward and lunged against Mgudza, this time cutting her in her back, thrusting my sword there.

"DAMN YOU STUPID HUMAN!" she yelled and her torso dislodged from her legs, this time forming a gap between her lower and upper fangs, giving a more creepy look to her... mouth, or whatever you wanna cal it. Her body was free from my sword and she instantly hit me in the back with both har arms, painfully bringing me face-flat to the floor.

"GAHH!!!" I yelled as I felt blood in my mouth. I rolled and quickly left Mgudza's range, while I could see Roy beginning to chant something.

_Darkness beyond twilight  
Crimson beyond blood that flows  
Buried in the flow of time  
In thy great name, I pledge myself to darkness  
Let all the fools who stand in our way be destroyed  
by the power you and I possess..._

Mgudza instantly turned towards him, with both of her tentacles charging against Roy. I could feel the enormous power Roy was gathering, while a large ball of red and black formed between his hands. I knew it was going to be messy, so I ran as far away from Mgudza as possible.

"DRAGON SLAVE!!" yelled Roy, and a huge red and black ray of eerie light flew from his hands towards Mgudza. As soon as it hit, a huge explosion formed, engulfing a large portion of what once was Lassadia. I ran towards Roy and smiled.

"What was that!?"

"If those two are correct, I was drawing a bit of YOUR power", he said, with clear sarcasm in his face.

"Not funny!", I said, and turned to see how the dust cloud that had formed from the explosion begun to dissipate.

I could hear someone laughing from the dust cloud... a female laugh.

_DAMN!_

"Asking your friend for help won't do you any good, Mr. Roy", laughed Mgudza. I then decided to take my chances while Roy threw off some flare arrows as a red herring and I ran towards Mgudza again, this time grasping my sword with all my might.

_I don't care if it's Shabranigdu or whomever, but please give me your strength to kill her!_

I lunged against Mgudza, thrusting my sword in her abdomen, and an eerie bright light started emanating from my sword.

"GAHH!!!" I yelled, forcing all my body against my blade and in turn forcing it inside Mgudza's body.

"This...!!!" she yelled, as a loud crack was heard. I lifted my gaze up and noticed how Mgudza's body was starting to get cracked all over.

_Please.... Please!!!_

I kept thrusting my sword against Mgudza's body, and from the cracks in her skin strong rays of light started to appear and finally...

"ENOUGH!" I heard. Roy was standing a few feet away from me, and he lifted his gaze up, noticing at the same time I did who was speaking.

Norst.


	5. And All That Was Left

**4: And All That Was Left...**

**

* * *

  
**

Norst was floating high up in the air, overlooking both Roy, me and Mgudza, who was still being impaled by my bastard sword. I took out the sword, and a loud screech filled our eardrums and Mgudza fell to the floor, with her skin cracked, my sword still glowing. Norst started descending slowly towards us.

"You have served me well, Mgudza", said Norst and approached her, touching the hideous body with his bare hand. Suddenly, a gruesome show started happening that I won't bother describing just because I don't really want to die of famine. Long (and disgusting) story short, Mgudza was gone somehow being assimilated into Norst's body.

"She was a part of you, wasn't she?", said Roy with a smirk.

"You could say so" Norst smiled at us, still keeping his distance. I grasped my sword and kept a defensive stance.

_Damn, one hell of a week. Way more action than in the past year alone... Note to self: Be more careful for what you wish for in the future, Logan..._

"Let me put this straight," I interjected, "I'm no Mazoku, and I have no intention of joining you people for whatever it is you want to do"

"I wasn't expecting your cooperation," said Norst, smiling at me defiantly, "But if you are or not a Mazoku, that is yet to be seen".

"What?" I said. Norst hadn't even tried anything: he just stood there, smiling at both Roy and me, and...

_ROY!_

I turned around, just to watch Roy falling on his knees, grabbing his neck and grasping for air. I ran towards him and grabbed his shoulders and shook him.

"Roy! What's wrong?" All he could do was lift his gaze at me. His eyes were white, and he was hardly breathing: Norst was clearly suffocating him.

"LET HIM GO!" I demanded, once again unsheathing my sword and running at Norst. He was still smiling, evading every single one of my attacks easily.

"What do you intend to do, boy? Kill me with a sword? It might have gotten the best out of Mgudza, but you will only manage to kill me, Norst priest of Dynast if you are Lord Ruby Eye" he said mockingly. I kept slashing left and right to no avail, only furthering my anger. I could hear Roy grasping for air behind me, but I still couldn't get to Norst.

_If I don't do something now, Roy's going to die!_

"GAHH!!" I yelled, and my sword started glowing even brighter than before. I tried to slash at Norst, but to no avail: he was way too quick for me to try anything against him. I lunged forward, slashed to the left, slashed to the right, I even jumped and tried impaling him, but all he did was disappear and reappear next to me, evading the attack. It was almost as if he knew everything that was happening.

_Anything, I have to something!_

I turned my sight back towards Roy, and noticed he was still grasping for air, with a desperate look on his face. Norst was way too powerful for me to take on him alone and at the rate the fight was going, Roy was going to die.

"I guess that should do it," smiled Norst. First, Mgudza destroyed a whole city. Now, Norst was killing Roy and apparently enjoying it, all based on the ASSUMPTION that I was the reincarnation of Ruby Eye Shabranigdu...

_This is sickening..._

I kept slashing, attempting to hit Norst to no avail, "Let him go, you bastard let him go!". Suddenly, I noticed my sword was glowing as much as it could. It's bright light blinded me for a second, but didn't stop me from slashing left and right, this time blindly. Norst kept evading each and every one of my attacks.

"I guess a little tighter should do!" he said and I could hear a loud crackling noise coming from Roy's body. I turned around and he was up in mid air, grabbing his own neck, trying to grasp for air.

I stopped, grasped my sword and yelled from the bottom of my lungs. I felt as if air surrounded my body, swirling rapidly, with my sword glowing stronger and stronger.

"Hahahaha! Come, Lord Ruby Eye!", said Norst from his advantaged position, "Come and let us bring everything back to chaos as the Mazoku we are!"

I then ran and lunged towards Norst, with my glowing sword, using all my might and will against him. All I could hear was a loud gasp coming from Norst, and an even louder thump coming from where Roy had stood.

"Y...You..." said Norst, with a disgruntled look in his face, my sword stuck in his abdomen, glowing so much that every single inch of the destroyed Lassadia could be seen in the middle of the night.

I let go of him and resumed position, this time slashing forward. I could see him dodge left... quickly, but not enough as to not allow me to to move my sword quickly enough to hit his flank and send him flying to my left.

"GAAAAAH!!!" I yelled, running towards him, all while he was still getting on his feet. I slashed my sword right in front of him, cutting him cleanly in half from the waist.

"So... so you're not..." said Norst, while reforming his own body. "So you're not Lord Ruby Eye after all", he started laughing. "All the better, now I have a reason to dispose of you and not holding back!" he yelled and raised his hands towards me, throwing off a large glowing ball towards me.

Not really taking note into whatever it was he had said about me not being Shabranigdu, I raised my sword and cut the ball of light in half, each piece going off course and exploding in the background, far away enough from me. The shockwave came back at me, but all it did was flunk my hair a bit, and a large cloud of dust came blowing instantly after that, blocking both of our visions.

"Impressive!", yelled Norst. I could barely make out his shape from the debris and the dust flying all over from the previous explosion, but I could definitely notice how he started floating up in the air. Then, his whole body started glowing, and a barrage of bright lights came my way. I dodged them all, moving as fast as I could, when I noticed a presence right next to me.

"ROY!", I said, apparently looking relieved.

"Let's get this son of a bitch", he smiled with his usual attitude.

_Boy am I glad to see you..._

"Let's do it!", I said and took a high jump in the air; one that I should say I never thought was possible for me. I must've leapt at least ten feet, ending right in front of Norst. His face was priceless when he saw me, widely opening his eyes, and stretching his arms towards me.

I didn't let him finish, instead slashing right in front of me and cutting his hands off his arms. That wouldn't stop him most likely, but it did throw him off balance, plummeting towards the floor. I fell with him, a bit slower, and held my sword straight down, and as soon as I fell, I impaled him in the gut.

"GAH!", yelled Norst and some sort of energy made me fly a few feet away, taking my sword away from his body. Right after I got up, Roy followed by throwing several fireballs at Norst, creating a huge explosion in place, followed by a large dust cloud that blocked all our views. I then -somehow- managed to see Norst in front of me... only he looked much bigger and formless. I would describe it, but it's impossible to describe at all. Let's say he was just... formless, but huge. Like a large... mountain. However, I somehow knew he was Norst.

Anyway, I rushed at him and slashed, taking out a rather large chunk of his... uhm... I'm gonna call it flesh for simplicity's sake, but it was definitely not flesh. I heard a loud screech, and when the cloud dissipated, I could see Norst missing an arm and part of his torso. Yup, not a nice sight at all. Especially if you take into account his sigh, fixated on me and irradiating such hate that... you know the drill.

So as soon as I drew back, Roy moved back in, shooting several flare arrows at him. From what he'd told me, none of those spells were going to do anything against him, so I somehow took notice of his strategy and rushed back in after the smoke lifted by the flare arrows cleared. I once again cut Norst in his flank, embedding my sword in his body. However, the only thing he did was smile at me and grab my sword with his hand.

"Nice work, boy, but not even a Knight of Ceifeed can stand up against the priest of Dynast", he smiled and his body started glowing once again.

"Back off!", yelled Roy. However, I heard his warning too late, and the large explosion that ensued blinded me completely, and I fell unconscious.

The last thing I could hear was "This is not over yet, Knight of Ceifeed", and then everything went to black.

When I came back to myself, I was laying down in the cave we had taken shelter earlier, with Roy giving me his back, staring outside. The embers from our fire were still there, hissing and smoking. From what I could see outside, the landscape had changed considerably: from being the cityscape of Lassadia to a huge wasteland.

"You feeling better?", said Roy, while I sat up and grabbed my head. It throbbed a bit, but it was nothing serious, I just felt a little dizzy. He turned his head towards me, and smiled, "I guess you have no idea what happened back there, do you?"

"Not really," I smiled.

"Well, Norst said it himself. You're not Shabranigdu, so you can rest assured with that... What you did for me was quite something" he said.

I blushed and quickly changed my tone, "Well, I do owe you a seventy... something gold coins. I hope that lessens my debt a bit or two"

"Not one bit", Roy laughed. It was nice for either of us to keep such high spirits, especially considering Norst could be coming after us at any given moment. "You really are one of a kind, Logan Feniss", said Roy, without turning back this time.

"What do you mean?"

"I guess you wouldn't know, being such a dense asshole", he laughed, this time getting up and coming closer to me.

Hey, have some mercy on the wounded...

"If what Norst said is true, you're definitely not Shabranigdu"

"I get that much", I said.

"You're quite the opposite"

_Huh?  
_  
I wasn't really following him. All those names that seemed like they came from a storybook were starting to get to me: Shabranigdu, Dynast of the deep sea, Chaos Dragon GrauDolphin... or whatever they were.

"Flare Dragon Ceifeed", said Roy ominously, "You do not have a fragment of Ruby Eye Shabranigdu, but one of Flare Dragon Ceifeed, Lord of the Shinzoku. Basically the big boss of all good guys", he finally smiled.

"Like... Ruby Eye's counterpart of something?" I inquired.

Roy nodded and smiled, "See what I told ya? One of a kind..."

I kinda felt cheated at some point. I don't know why, but I never asked for this kind of... power, or whatever it was. And then it hit me....

"So back in town, with Mar... sorry, Mgudza's supposed rapists... and the bandits..."

Roy nodded. It was me, I had done it myself: apparently I had the power to do all that. But if I could do all that, why couldn't I defeat Norst?

"You can't", Roy said, almost as if reading my thoughts, "Because, quite opposite to Norst, you're still a human being. Having Flare Dragon's fragment of power does not give you instant godhood or something"

So all the luck I've had previously was basically... my own doing? Because I'm a Knight of Ceifeed?

"We still have to stop Norst. I may not be Shabranigdu or whatever, but now he wants to kill me because I'm a Knight of Ceifeed..."

"And he inadvertently woke up that part of you destroying Lassadia and trying to kill me: while trying to awaken his lord Ruby Eye, he ended up awakening one of his dreadest foes. It's quite ironic if you ask me"

I suddenly got up and started fixing my blade and my armor back in place. Roy got up and looked at me worried.

"What're you gonna do?", he said.

"Well, I have to stop Norst: you said it yourself".

Roy then started laughing out loud, "You think you're gonna run off your debt that easily?" he said and then grabbed my shoulder pads, "I'm going with you", he smiled.

I smiled back, "Thank you". We got ready, with Roy leaving his backpack in the cave, and fixing his robe and hood back in place, "You know, being a Knight of Ceifeed must be quite interesting, power wise, but I do have some tricks up my sleeves", he smiled.

"Let's see what you can do with those, old man", I smiled.

"Interesting, coming from a 23-year old that actually looks and acts like he was 10", he laughed and started walking outside the cave. "So, you coming? Norst's probably still in Lassadia, waiting for us to come"

"Yeah, right away!", I said, and we both ran towards the wasteland that had been Lassadia only a few hours ago.

We had barely slept ever since we got to Lassadia, and the sun was already starting to rise, but our spirits were high enough to not let that bother us and run towards the battle full-on. We arrived in Lassadia a few minutes later, powered by Roy's Ray Wing, and found in the middle of the wasteland the figure of Norst waiting for us.

"You took your time, Knight of Ceifeed", he smiled, "Lord Dynast will be most pleased when he hears news that I, Norst, have killed you"

"That's if you ever get to deliver those news", smiled Roy. Instantly he pulled back and started chanting a spell.

"I thought you should know that the spell of Lord Ruby Eye will not work against me", he smiled and just stood there, ready to take on Roy's spell.

"DRAGON SLAVE!" he said, while looking at me, with his palms directed at Norst and the huge ray of red and black flew his way. Just before it could hit, I ran towards Norst and slashed right at him. He had to choose to either take the Dragon Slave full on or be cut by my glowing sword. Whichever he choose, he was definitely going to be hurt badly. He leapt right, and the Dragon Slave hit him head on. I ran away as fast as I could, but I was caught in the explosion nonetheless, being knocked down almost instantly. I got up as fast as I could, and I could notice Roy begun to chant another spell, while a large barrage was directed his way. Norst was in the air, barraging us from his advantaged position. I ran towards Roy and started deflecting as much attacks as I could with my sword to protect Roy while he casted.

"DOLPH STRASH!", yelled Roy and a large shockwave that looked like a spear in the air was directed at Norst, exploding on contact. After a few seconds, the barrages kept coming and Norst started descending.

"I'm runing out of tricks here!", declared Roy.

"I thought you said you had quite a few under your sleeve! Start using them god damn it!", I demanded and kept deflecting each attack.

Roy then chanted a few more fireballs and flare arrows just to buy us some time, and then started gathering some energy in his hands again, while murmuring some words.

"I think I have a plan! Keep Norst at bay for a few seconds!" Roy yelled and I nodded, while still deflecting the rays of light that kept coming at us as Norst descended. As soon as he touched ground, I charged at him and started slashing my sword while he kept avoiding it.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!", yelled Roy and I did so, while he yelled, "RAGNA BLAST!!".

A large ray of black light emanated from Roy's hand and hit Norst dead on, creating a huge explosion...

...is what I would've liked to say, but nothing happened. Nothing at all. I turned towards Roy who looked as puzzled as I did.

"Didn't you get the news? Lord Hellmaster is DEAD!" said Norst, while charging at Roy and sending off various beams of purplish and black light at him. Suddenly, a circle formed in the floor and Roy got out of it right in time, as it exploded an instant later. I stood there, surprised at Roy's capacity and Norst's tenacity. Both of them were superb in their own accord, but there was no way we could defeat Norst... not the way we were doing at the moment.

I then thought about back when I was fighting Mgudza. My sword had started shining brightly and when I cut her she couldn't move... it looked as if I was gonna be able to kill her if Norst hadn't interefered. I instantly grasped my sword and ran towards Norst.

"YEAAARRRGHHH!!!" I yelled and lunged at Norst, who was recovering from a Fireball Roy had thrown him. It had caused no damage, but his field of vision was clearly disrupted, and he had needed some time to recover from it.

_Please, Ceifeed... grant me the power to defeat Norst..._

My sword was starting to get really warm and I could see it's glow. As soon as I got to Norst, he shrugged and I pierced his body with my blade, yelling with all my might.

"This... No!!!" yelled Norst, unable to move. I heard the familiar crackling noise coming from his skin, and his eye sockets and mouth started emanating light.

"NOW!!", I yelled.

Roy caught to my plan and gathered once again the energy in his palms, with strong winds engulfing his body.

_Darkness beyond twilight  
Crimson beyond blood that flows  
Buried in the flow of time  
In thy great name, I pledge myself to darkness  
Let all the fools who stand in our way be destroyed  
by the power you and I possess..._

As soon as he finished his chant, Norst was looking terrified, the streams of light running even more wild inside his body, making it almost translucent.

"DRAGON SLAVE!!", yelled Roy once again, and the large ray of red and black hit Norst once again, throwing me off balance and... suddenly, I stopped moving. Somehow, or someone had put up a protective barrier around me. Maybe it was myself, maybe it was Ceifeed's fragment inside my soul, but I didn't care.

All I could hear was the loud explosion and the dust cloud dissipating. Suddenly, Norst appeared in front of us, extremely hurt, with both his arms gone, a large hole in his flank, a good chunk of his face gone and one leg missing.

"That was... interesting... Knight of Ceifeed...", he said, "Know that this isn't over yet. I will come back to defeat you one day, if only for my pride as a Mazoku..." and suddenly disappeared.

I sighed, grasping my sword and falling to my knees in the floor, breathing rather heavily. I turned to Roy, who was still standing, also breathing very heavily from all the stress of the battle.

We looked at each other and smiled.

We won. Even if it was only a temporary victory, and Norst was sure to come back for us, we had won.


	6. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

**

* * *

  
**

Both Roy and I got back to the cave and recovered all our belongings. We didn't say a word, but we decided we both needed a much deserved rest after confronting Norst and Mgudza, and witnessing the destruction of Lassadia. It was a lot to digest, and we had a lot of talking to do once we had completely recovered.

For all we had been through, it was one hell of a ride for a young man. Being a Knight of Ceifeed was quite the revelation, and I couldn't take it lightly. Roy had told me that lesser Mazoku were probably no challenge for me now that I had awakened as a Knight of Ceifeed, but that stronger Mazoku were probably still going to be a pain, and they were most likely gonna be coming after me, since I was some sort of embodiment of all that they hated and fought against.

We wondered for how long had Norst been planning this, observing me and thinking that I had a piece of Ruby Eye inside of me. We came to the conclusion that it definitely had something to do with my previous luck (I'm tellin' ya, it's uncanny!). Somehow the lack of jobs for mercenaries probably had something to do with Norst wanting to lure me to Lassadia. Why had he chosen Lassadia of all places? As Roy told me, if a huge grief took over my soul and I lost all hope, and if I really did have a fragment of Shabranigdu inside of me, to see all those people die and then having Roy killed in front of me would've awaken that fragment and all hell would've broke loose.

"So what're you up to now?", asked Roy. I was kind of relieved when he said that, thinking that with all the stress that we had lived this past week he had probably forgotten (or forgiven, how naive of me) about the debt.

"I don't know. I guess I'll still go working as a mercenary around" I said, grabbing my remaining stuff from the cave and starting to head out.

"Well then, let's make a plan. And please no more animal-nappings or whatever..."

_WHAT?_

"You didn't think I'd forget about you owing me seventy-two gold and five silver, did you? Oh, and about the inn back in town, you thought I wouldn't notice you were charging all that on me? That makes it... a hundred and thirty gold, seven silver and three copper coins you owe me now..." he smiled. I sighed heavily. "Okay then, shall we go?" he said while we left the cave behind, and headed east, as far as possible from where Lassadia once stood.


End file.
